Why do horses spook?

D

dizzyf

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 January 2009
Messages
294
Visit site
Why do some horses spook when there is apparently nothing there?

My horse spooks at 'nothing', and doesn't spook when he has a real cause to!
 
For evolutionary reasons it is better to over do it, spook and run when there is nothing there, than make the opposite mistake, i.e. stay calm and get eaten!
 
I suppose it is the equivalent of us jumping when we 'think' we see something - eg, after we've watched a horror movie, don't you see human eating monsters in the shadows everywhere!! :o
I know our girl sees these horse eating monsters everywhere - in crisp bags, bushes, fence panels....!
K x
 
It depends on what you call spook - i tend to think mine are looking out for us, which makes life a lot more comfortable to deal with as i veiw it in the positive fashion, rather than spook which sends our negative signals
 
dont know TBH. i guess the bombproof ones are easy going and laid back and my mare, usually bombproof, can still do a 'dip your bum under you and run forward quickly' moment for no reason at all! or an all four feet off the floor moment. normally thats because there IS something 'scary'.

once when hacking her alone we were going down a track. on the right was a corn field and on the left a thick hedge. upon coming to a gap in the hedge she freaked and bolted right into the field and we made biig crop circles! i tried to get her out but she stood stock still, snorting and shaking for at least ten minutes. finally, and very tenatively, we continued on our way! i could see absolutely nothing for her to be scared of. sometimes i think they do see or hear something that we dont...
 
To some species, the olfactory senses are stronger than sight or hearing, i.e. the sense of smell. We tend to forget this as our own sense of smell is not very good.

Smells can be frightening. I would not have said that until I met a man who transported a live lion in the back of his van! The smell of the lion made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up long before I knew what he had in his van! He then proceeding to demonstrate how quiet the lion was by giving it a Polo mint. That didn't disguise the smell though and I was glad when he went!
 
Golf Girl said:
Your horse isn't spooking at 'nothing', he's spooking at something which is significant to him but may be imperceptible to you ;)
Click to expand...


This is perfectly true, horses spook as it is part of their defense mechanism, the flight line for a horse spooking can be a quarter of a mile before they stop and think 'what was that?'

The biggest problem for riders is to appreciate that a horse is a horse and will behave like a horse, so a little spook now and again is normal for the horse. When the rider is constantly anticipating that the horse will spook the horse will pick up on this will lose confidence and spook as a result. Nervous riders have horses that are more liable to spook, where a confident relaxed rider, in general, will have a confident relaxed horse.
 
Golf Girl said:
Your horse isn't spooking at 'nothing', he's spooking at something which is significant to him but may be imperceptible to you ;)
Click to expand...
Agree. Also as AndySpooner says it's an evolutionary adaption. Horses vision is I believe is also very sensitive to movement of objects.

I also am beginning to think horses spook more often and more strongly when they are generally stressed in some way. Just like when we are stressed or in pain/ill we tend to be more irritable and reactive... I wonder if this stems from a feeling of insecurity because we know we aren't 100% so have to be more on alert in case we can't react as quickly. Just musings.
 
There are two systems in the horse - the very automatic, evolutionarily ancient "what the hell was that - escape!" system and the learned, dis-habituation system that says "oh, I've seen this before and it's fine - panic mode not engaged". However, for spooky horses, the 'don't panic' mode is only reached at a higher threshold. In other words, smaller things continue to grab their attention (on a horse I ride it's things like tissues and his own shadow) and they can't over-ride their escape mode very easily, even if they've experienced the object before and come to no harm. Other horses thresholds are lower - they can override the panic of something new or quickly moving quite easily.

Evolution says panic and escape are the better option - you're less likely to get attacked by the cougar if you flee with only minor queues, but riders say otherwise, and seek 'bravery'/'bombproofness'/high threshold. Some say you can breed this, and others say it's to do with exposure to stimuli while young and learning. Either way, it certainly doesn't do any harm to expose young horses to colour poles etc in hand when young.

So all in all, that's why a horse spooks and why some are different in their spookiness than others, and why even a 'bombproof' horse can flee - it still has an auto-panic function in there too!
 
My boy tends to be more spooky when we are walking with bushes and trees on either side of us. In big open spaces he doesn't have care in the world. I try to just ignore and push him on regardless.

Also today he was more spooky/on his toes than than he has been for the last few weeks doing exactly the same hacking route. I put this down to the fact that the corn fields are really starting to grow and the sunflowers are starting to come up. So I reckoned it may be strange that everything looks different (again!!) and also the smells must change. However I may be totally wrong and just sound like a numpty.
 
spooking can also be diet related, what do you feed him? try feeding him a magnesium supplement because horses what are low on magnesium can spook.

are you anticipating that hes going to spook, if you are he will sense your fear and feel that he needs to be afraid and therefore spook

try doing some excercises with him in a menage to decencstise him (sorry dnt know how to spell it) do lots of obsticles with him, walking over big blue sheets, waving a carry bag around him, make a sudden bang etc, all this will help build your horses confidence up, i do lots of this with my youngster and it has made him a lot braver
 
Sometimes they spook on purpose to get away with something or avoid doing work. Of course most of the time they really do see or sense something, but there are those occasions where it lets them stop doing whatever they are doing that they probably are not keen on (if that sentence made any sense at all I'll be amazed. But you get my point...)
 
Quartz said:
My boy tends to be more spooky when we are walking with bushes and trees on either side of us. In big open spaces he doesn't have care in the world. I try to just ignore and push him on regardless.

Also today he was more spooky/on his toes than than he has been for the last few weeks doing exactly the same hacking route. I put this down to the fact that the corn fields are really starting to grow and the sunflowers are starting to come up. So I reckoned it may be strange that everything looks different (again!!) and also the smells must change. However I may be totally wrong and just sound like a numpty.
Click to expand...


Perfect sense, from a horses point of view, things hide in bushes and in long grass, horses are more confident when they can see there is nowhere for them to be ambushed.
 
I'm trying to find a piece I read about horse eyesight, and how they can pass the same spot twice and see something different each time. Bit useless till I can actually find it, but I'll try to Google or look in the filing cabinet.

Also bear in mind that horses do have blind spots, so I suppose some stuff "sneaks up" on them.

Here's a mention of the study: http://forum.cyberhorse.com.au/forums/showthread.php?t=75567 I can't find the abstract, which is meant to be on Science Direct.


There's something about ongoing research into whether horses can be "despooked" here: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=7813
 
because my 17hh - 600 kg mare is convinced that a blackbird can carry her away in its claws & take it to a nest to be eaten by baby birds:rolleyes:
 
horses spook for two reasons:-

1) They haven't seen things before

2) Because as a horse changes from binocular to monocular vision, (looking at things all around them to looking at things in front of them) there is a second where vision is blurred and things they are looking at appear to jump, its a bit like how the rear view vision in your car shows things closer and your wing mirrors further away) except we have binocular vision and are better at judging distance) and we are less likely to spook!

So that stationary object really did move for them!
 
snopuma said:
horses spook for two reasons:-

1) They haven't seen things before

2) Because as a horse changes from binocular to monocular vision, (looking at things all around them to looking at things in front of them) there is a second where vision is blurred and things they are looking at appear to jump, its a bit like how the rear view vision in your car shows things closer and your wing mirrors further away) except we have binocular vision and are better at judging distance) and we are less likely to spook!

So that stationary object really did move for them!
Click to expand...

Sometimes they have seen something before and decided it's always worth spooking at.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top